It is known to provide automotive interiors with various trim parts to enhance the aesthetic appearance of the automotive interior and to provide comfort, as well as convenience, to vehicle occupants. Examples of these interior trim parts include instrument trim panels, door trim panels, console panels, armrests, bolsters, and handles. To increase the aesthetic appearance of these trim parts and to improve the comfort to vehicle occupants, it is often desired to provide at least portions of the trim part, such as the bolster, with areas that are cushy or soft to the touch.
One primary drawback with current bolsters is in the manufacturing and assembly thereof. Bolsters having a soft feel, typically, have been formed by insertion of a resilient soft padding material beneath a pliable surface layer of leather, vinyl, or fabric material. The preformed soft, resilient pad also may be secured to a rigid plastic shell and a pliable skin layer stretched over the pad and secured to the shell to form the trim part. In another conventional method of forming padded trim parts, a foam material may be injected between a rigid substrate and a skin layer joined to the substrate.
In addition, skin layers having bumps or nibs formed on the B-side, or back surface, thereof have been applied over rigid substrates in an effort to improve the feel of non-padded trim parts. The nibs raise the skin layer slightly away from the rigid substrate to create “soft” areas that deform when a force is applied to the trim assembly. As such, it is the nib design that provides these soft areas. Also, while these nibbed trim assemblies offer a compromise between padded trim assemblies, they are still costly due to the fact that the skin layer must be manufactured separately in order to create the bumps or nibs. Consequently, the above noted methods are generally costly due to the multiple and expensive materials and/or components and extra manufacturing steps required to make these trim assemblies.
There is thus a need for an improved bolster with a soft feel for use in a trim assembly, and a method for making the same, that can reduce the number of parts and labor and costly materials required for assembly thereof, thereby reducing overall manufacturing costs.